But Don’t Call Him Sir

Queen Elizabeth II has named University Professor Arthur Miller a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE), one of the United Kingdom’s highest honors. The Order of the British Empire recognizes distinguished service to the arts and sciences, public services outside the Civil Service, and work with charitable and welfare organizations of all kinds.”

Miller’s service to the United Kingdom includes his 2010 gift of more than 1,800 Japanese woodblock prints by 19th-century artist Utagawa Kuniyoshi to the American Friends of the British Museum. For more than 20 years, he also moderated Hypotheticals, a series of high-level panel discussions aired on the BBC, modeled on the PBS Fred Friendly dialogues Miller moderated in the U.S.

More important is the question of what to call him. “I am one rank in the Order below knighthood, so ‘Sir’ is inappropriate,” says Miller. “I am two ranks above the Beatles as a group, however.”